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ANNUAL - 2019

Introduction

2019 has been an amazing year for Infinity

Foundation. Infinity Foundation completed

25 exciting years of serving and protecting

Dharma, against all odds and under very

challenging circumstances. We have

successfully managed to challenge the

existing global discourse which is negative

towards India and Hinduphobic. At the

same time we have propagated and

reinforced a very positive narrative about

India, Hinduism and Dharma, based on

India’s contribution to science, technology,

mind sciences, architecture, mathematics,

astronomy, linguistics, computer science

and other fields.

At the helm of Infinity Foundation, Rajiv

Malhotra has successfully navigated the

challenges in the representation of Indian

knowledge and culture, and through his

deep knowledge, profound insights and

path-breaking books has established a very

viable Swadeshi alternative to the western

schools of thoughts which tend to have a

biased and unsympathetic view of India

and her cultural assets. By coining original

vocabulary like Breaking India, mutual

respect, reversing the gaze and many

others, Rajiv has brought to the forefront

numerous challenges facing India society

both within and outside India.

2019 has been another phenomenal year

for Infinity Foundation, with original

research, numerous game-changing

discussions, conferences and academic

initiatives. Important people across

disciplines like industrialist and

philanthropist Mohandas Pai, vice

Chairman of Niti Aayog, Rajiv Kumar,

British media personality Katie Hopkins,

prominent Swamis and gurus across the

world, were interviewed and participated

in lively debates.

We ran a very impactful campaign on the

plight of Hindus in countries around the

world. We showcased to the world a very

innovative way to do a vakyartha sadas

highlighting how views of contemporary

western indologists like Sheldon Pollock

can also be debated and debunked. Romila

Thapar despite repeated appeals from us,

has declined to do an interview with Rajiv

Malhotra. Therefore, a purvapaksha of

Thapar’s views on history was done by

Rajiv after going through various videos

where she talks of her stance on various

issues. Her views were played out and Rajiv

then offered his counterpoint to them. This

was one of the highlights of the year gone

by as such a comprehensive critique of

Thapar’s work has not been undertaken by

anyone at least in the video format.

In this report, we will highlight some of the

important discussions, debates and

analysis in 2019. The report will also

discuss the impact of the two very

important Swadeshi Indology conferences

that were held in 2019.

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25 Year Journey of Infinity Foundation

In this lecture delivered at the Waves

Conferences in Dallas, Rajiv Malhotra gives

an overview of his journey in Infinity

Foundation over the last 25 years.

As a philanthropist, funding the

academia

As a scholar producing his own

scholarship

As an Institution builder, developing a

Swadeshi School of Thought.

Infinity Foundation started out by funding

top academic institutions like Harvard,

Princeton, Columbia, and many others.

One of the outcomes of this was that it

helped understand the inner workings

such institutions and their unwillingness to

explore ideas outside the mainstream

narrative.

This motivated Rajiv to produce his own

scholarship and he became a very

successful research author, challenging

many established intellectual equilibriums

concerning India.

Rajiv then talks about how things stand

today and about his quest to develop a

new indigenous school of thought which

next generation of scholars can build upon.

Rajiv describes how the latest challenges

are on account of insiders who are

emotional rather than competent. He

concludes by suggesting the way forward.

Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Bhishma Puraskar Award

Rajiv Malhotra received the prestigious

Bhishma Puraskar Award for his exemplary

work in the field of civilizational studies

and Indology. Swami Govinda Dev Giri

Maharaj, head of Sant Shri Gyaneshwar

Gurukul, Padma Bhushan Awardee Dr.

Vijay Bhatkar and Dr Nitin Karmalkar, Vice

Chancellor of SPPU, Pune appreciated the

work done by Rajiv Malhotra and Infinity

Foundation. Video.

JNU Lecture

Rajiv Malhotra delivered a lecture at JNU

where he touched upon a number of

important issues that the youth of today

must understand and address.

Today Artificial intelligence is poised to

replace most of the jobs the youth are

aspiring to get. USA and China have 80%

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share of new technologies between them.

He asked the young people in the audience

to reflect on their future and assess their

readiness to face this challenge. He

stresses on the urgent need for

decolonization. While China controls the

study of its civilization, the study of India

remains colonized and is directly or

indirectly controlled by the West even

now. Sanskrit scholars in India have failed

to counter the biases of Western scholars

of Sanskrit, despite many efforts by Infinity

Foundation and others.

Rajiv explains the inapplicability of

Left/Right categories to Indian society, and

challenge the youth of JNU to rise above

such dichotomies. Only then can they lead

India’s youth to tackle the massive

challenges facing their generation. Videos:

1, 2, 3, 4

Hindu Lives Matter

In this very important series under

#HinduLivesMatter, Rajiv Malhotra

explores the sad plight of Hindus as

minorities in different countries. Minority

Hindus face severe persecution, often

state-sponsored. Yet such incidents are not

reported in main-stream media, either in

India or abroad. This series assumes great

significance especially in the context of the

debate surrounding the Citizenship

Amendment Act 2019, which makes it

easier for Hindu from Pakistan, Bhutan and

Bangladesh to get Indian citizenship.

Pakistani Hindu Genocide

Rajiv Malhotra and Dr. Omendra Ratnu

discuss the shocking plight of Hindus in

Pakistan and those few who manage to

cross over into India as refugees. Video

Bhutan Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus

Leaders from Bhutanese Hindus living as

refugees in USA explain the history of their

ethnic cleansing by the Bhutan

government, and the challenges they face

in USA to practice Hindu dharma. Video.

Plight of Hindus in Bangladesh

Swami Shuvananda of Swami

Advaitananda Mission explains the

shocking plight of Hindus in Bangladesh in

the face of ever-increasing Islamization

and intolerance towards minorities. Video.

Call for Help by Sri Lanka Hindus

Swami Sachithananthan of Sri Lanka has

been connected with Infinity Foundation’s

work and explains the help needed by

Hindus in Sri Lanka. Video.

Rajya is Strong, Where is the Rashtra?

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On the historic occasion of Modi 2.0, Rajiv

evaluates the opportunities and existential

risks that Bharat faces. He identifies 4 key

challenges that need to be addressed:

bureaucratic mediocrity

digital and social media colonization

internal and external threats

development of human capital

In this very engaging discussion with Vijaya

Vishwanathan, Rajiv provides a framework

for solving these issues. Video

Civilizational Foundations of Indian Nation State

In this lecture delivered to 300 plus IAS

trainee officers at the LBSNAA campus in

Mussorie on, Rajiv Malhotra outlines the

civilizational foundations of the modern

nation state of India.

He talks about how there are at least two

major competing narratives in India; one is

secular democracy with its ideas of

constitution, judiciary, government

borrowed from the west. The second is the

very old Indian idea of who we are, which

is built on the Vedic foundational heritage

and which assimilated other ideas as it

evolved through the times. He says that if

there is no consensus on the civilizational

impact on the modern narrative, then it is

time to see what guides the modern nation

state. Video.

Discussion with Katie Hopkins

In this path-breaking discussion with noted

British media personality Katie Hopkins,

Rajiv Malhotra and Katie discuss how Islam

is changing the very character of Britain

and Europe by attacking its core Christian

values and secular ideals. Rajiv Malhotra

coins the term “Breaking Britain” to

describe the forces who are trying to

dismantle Britain from within. Katie

accepts the terminology and says that the

antithetical forces include globalists,

Islamists and feminists. They discuss the

future of Europe, and the importance of

India and Hinduism as a force to counter

the rise of terrorism and violence globally.

They agree that UK and India must

collaborate. Video.

Indian Grand Narrative

Rajiv Malhotra and Mohandas Pai engage

in an animated discussion on what it

means to have a grand narrative for India

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with special focus on how Breaking India

forces operate in various domains to

fragment and break down this grand

narrative.

They discuss how the Breaking Indian

forces deny the existence of any over-

arching grand narrative and prefer a

balkanized India. They talk about some of

the strategies used to create conflicts and

sub identities which is then exploited to

create a divisive narrative. Video

Breaking India Forces in Tamil Nadu

In this exciting 6 part series, Rajiv Malhotra

and Prof Vaidyanathan discuss the

different breaking India forces operating in

Tamil Nadu.

The first episode talks about Dravidian

politics and its foremost exponent, EV

Ramasamy. They discuss how Dravidian

movement started as pro-British, evolved

to be anti-Brahmin, anti-National and now

secessionist and poses a great danger to

India's unity.

Next the role of the Church in proselytizing

and promoting anti-national activities is

analyzed. The Church dominates the Film

industry, TV Channels thereby promoting

anti-Hindu movies, biased TV shows and so

on.

Prof Vaidyanathan explains how Muslims

gained a strong foothold during the

Jallikattu issue in Tamil Nadu. Their

atrocities against Hindus is not reported in

the media as journalists are afraid to speak

out.

Prof Vaidyanathan explains how Naxalites

are playing a significant role in hindering

the developmental activities of the state.

Under the guise of activism, Naxalites are

influencing students in colleges and

universities, which is a huge cause for

concern. Many people believe LTTE to be

defeated although its activities are very

active in TN.

Finally, activists serve as the unifying

medium for all BI forces. Their only aim is

to promote anti-national activities and

therefore are ready to collaborate with all

BI forces. Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Discussion with Swami Chidanandapuri

Swami Chidanandapuri, Mathadipathi of

Advaita Ashram, Kolathur, Kozhikkode and

Rajiv Malhotra had an interesting

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conversation on various issues confronting

Hindu society.

They discussed the phenomenon of

growing political and demographic

Islamization of Kerala, radicalization of

Muslim youth and the influence of ISIS and

other terrorist organizations. An important

problem today is on account of Hindu

gurus today who neither like to take on

problems in the real world, nor conduct

clinical purvapaksha of opponents. Such an

attitude does not augur well for the future

of Hindus.

The Sabarimala verdict of 2018 was

discussed. Rajiv Malhotra touches upon

the fact that Supreme Court did not have

an expert on the temple traditions while

preparing the judgement. Rajiv talks about

opportunistic Hindus who are becoming

overnight activists without doing the

required tapasya. The role of media and

politicians in propagating an anti-Hindu

narrative is also discussed.

They examine the concept of daana in the

Hindu tradition and show how it is

different from charity which is

transactional in nature. They examine the

issue of NGOs and organizations which

step in to help during natural calamities

but have vested interests and agendas.

Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Decolonizing Romila Thapar

In a game-changing 5 part series Rajiv

Malhotra analyzes and critiques some of

key positions held by eminent historian

Prof Romila Thapar on various issues of

national and cultural importance. In each

episode, clips from her various lectures

and interviews are used to present her

position on specific issues. Then Rajiv

responds to her ideas and offers his

counter-point.

Prof Thapar considers Indian nationalism a

British product. Rajiv shows how the

conclusions would be different if

traditional categories of rashtra and desh

were used.

She claims that History departments at JNU

and similar institutions use critical thinking

and Social Sciences methodologies which

are objective. She criticizes the BJP

governments for suppressing intellectual

freedom. She insists that Hindus believe in

the Aryan Race theory, and their modern

ideas originated in Italian Fascism. She

claims Muslim rulers were good for India,

and many even sponsored Sanskrit studies.

She dismisses the claims of Somnath

temple destruction by citing spurious

arguments. Rajiv gives his rebuttals to all

these points and invites her to debate.

Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Discussion with Nityanand Misra

Robert Goldman is considered the most

prestigious Sanskrit scholar of the past 50

years in the Western academy. In a path-

breaking 3-part series, Nityanand Misra

dissects Goldman's translations of

Ramayana.

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Goldman's Ramayana translations are used

worldwide as the standard interpretation

by English speaking academics. The Indian

Council of Cultural Relations (part of

Ministry of External Affairs) gave Goldman

the highest Sanskrit award in 2017.

Nityanand Misra gives detailed evidence

that Robert Goldman mistranslated

Sanskrit to allege prostitution in the

Ramayana. Audrey Truschke uses this false

translation to make her Hinduphobic case

before her students and on social media.

Nityanand Misra demonstrates that these

are not innocent errors but manipulations

to distort the basic foundations of the

tradition. He shows that Gita Press'

translation is far superior. Episodes: 1, 2, 3

Discussion with Vindhya Persaud, MP, Republic of Guyana

In this discussion, Vindhya Persaud

explains how Hinduism, especially

Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita, helped the

Indian indentured laborers survive in

Guyana for 175 years of extreme hardship.

This illustrates the positive role of

collective identity in securing a

community’s self-esteem and survival.

Good leaders stuck their necks out over

many generations and resisted pressures

and inducements to sell out. This

courageous leadership helped the Hindu

community’s preservation of

rituals/festivals as a method of collective

survival and engagement with the

mainstream. Video.

Discussion with Professor Vaidyanathan

Rajiv Malhotra and Prof Vaidyanathan

discussed a wide range of issues in a very

lively and interesting 6-part series. Some of

the issues discussed were:

Critique of Modi government

small businesses as backbone of

economy,

“make in India” program,

family values, jati and social issue

Demonetization /black economy and

GST

Europe’s family crisis, fertility,

demographics, Islamic immigration,

de-Christianization.

Islam vs Modernity, the nexus of Left-

Islam, Localization vs Globalization.

Indian versus China

Breaking India Forces

Moronization of the masses

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Temple control and RTE

Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Conversations with Madhu Pandit Dasa

In this important series of conversations

with Madhu Pandit Dasa, President of

ISKCON-Bengaluru and Chairman of

Akshay Patra Foundation, Rajiv Malhotra

discusses a wide range of issues like the

nature of Ultimate Reality, significance of

Hare Krishna mantra and analysis of the

Sabarimala controversy from a Vaishnava

perspective. After this, they had private

discussions on important collaborations

which are now under way. Videos: 1, 2, 3

Discussion with Mohandas Pai

In this very engaging discussion with

Mohandas Pai just before the 2019 general

elections, a lot of important issues were

discussed. Mohandas states that the 2014

election was a fight against a corrupt

establishment. The 2019 election is

defined as Modi versus the Rest. The Rest

are unified only by hatred for Modi, and

they lack a positive idea of India.

Mohandas and Rajiv agreed that Indian

identity is not to be found in Delhi. Modi is

a much better representative of the real

India than Nehru was. Just like China is

becoming rich and discovering its old

heritage, so also India must invest in

heritage to build national identity. They

agree that the Culture Ministry has not

performed adequately and must improve.

Mohandas highlights some of the key

projects that need to be done in the next

5-year term: Justice for all through courts

development of human capital by

revamping HRD to build highly

qualified work force

creation of a labor-intensive ecosystem

urbanizing small towns so the masses

have quality of life and employment

efficiency. Videos: 1, 2, 3

Discussion with Rajiv Kumar

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, the vice-chairman of the

NITI Aayog, which is responsible for

planning economic development, is asked

by Rajiv Malhotra to reconcile the

individual’s spiritual anand with the

materialistic benchmarks used in

economics. They discuss whether a

spiritual nation can protect itself from

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others who are hostile and materialistic.

They discuss the importance of upgrading

the minds of our people, our national

grand narrative, and the quality of

governance especially in HRD and Culture.

Another issue which is touched upon is if

caste reservations can be replaced by

affirmative action based on individual

economic needs. This conversation

concludes with a constructive way

forward. Video: 1, 2, 3

The Decline of Sanskrit

This provocative Q&A discusses some of

Ram Mohan Roy’s disturbing side. People

blame Lord Macaulay for masterminding

the replacement of Sanskrit with the

Anglicization of India. Rajiv shows that it

was Ram Mohan Roy who championed this

change 12 years before Macaulay took it

up. Rajiv explains how we must transcend

regional identities like “Punjabi”,

“Tamilian”, etc. The Rashtra must come

first. Video.

Vakyartha Sadas

Vakyartha Sadas are events where

traditional scholars of Shastras engage in

scholarly debate on various issues

pertaining to Indian knowledge systems.

One such event was organized during the

Second Swadeshi Indology conference in

Feb 2017 at Indira Gandhi National Centre

for the Arts. Senior scholars of Madras

Sanskrit College debated and responded to

the various positions propagated by

eminent Western Indologist Sheldon

Pollock, by deconstructing and exposing

flaws in his arguments. Eminent Sanskrit

scholar Professor A.S Aravamudan

summarized the proceedings.

The entire debate was in Sanskrit and

these powerful, path-breaking, innovative

series of videos have now been made

available along with English subtitles. In a

special address, Brahmasri Mani Dravid

Sastry speaks in Hindi on the nature of

traditional pedagogy. Video: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Hindu Intervention at Stanford

In this lively and interesting conversation,

Siddhartha, a 19 year old, explains how he

has successfully negotiated important

policy changes at Stanford University to

serve his Hindu lifestyle.

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Videos in Hindi (Dubbed)

In 2019, we started providing Rajiv

Malhotra’s English videos with Hindi

dubbing, under the brand “दश विदश का सनदश”. This initiative was undertaken to

address the needs of a large demography

who are more conversant with Hindi than

English. The Hindi videos have received

good response. List of some of the Hindi-

dubbed videos are:

सौमय शकति की भरपाई (English)

अमररका का भगिाकरण (English)

मकलिम और भारि की महागाथा (English)

अिराारमाक बठको का पाखड (English)

शालर और भारिीय महागाथा (English)

भारिीय मकलिषक विजञान पर मर 25

िरषो का शोर (English)

रारमाक विचारराराए (English)

राराकषण ममोररयि वयाखयान: "भारिीय महागाथा" (English)

भारिीय जञान ननयााि: अिीि और भविषय (English)

भारिीय अथावयिलथा का मलयाकन - परोफसर िदयनाथन (भाग 1/6) (English)

विमदरीकरण, जीएसटी और कािा रन - परोफसर िदयनाथन (भाग 2/6) (English)

यरोप सकट - परोफसर िदयनाथन (भाग 3/6) (English)

चीन और भारि / जीिि बहस - परोफसर िदयनाथन (भाग 4/6) (English)

भारि विखडन / मलयाकन - परोफसर िदयनाथन (भाग 5/6) (English)

मोदी की आिोचना (भाग 6/6) (English)

सलकनि और आरथाक सशतिीकरण

(English)

अमररकी सना म हहनद रमा (English)

गयाना हहद तयो ह ? (English)

रशकषाजगि का वि-उपननिशीकरण

(English)

भररमि विशरषजञो स मरी मठभड (English)

"म एक लिारभमानी हहद तयो ह" / सरीनाम क उपराषरपनि (English)

मनोिजञाननक यदर म विजय: मोहनदास पाई क साथ बािचीि (English)

Other Episodes

Sabarimala: Faith under Attack

Subhash Kak on AI and Consciousness

Dr Subramanian Swamy’s Election

Strategy for 2019

Globalizing the RSS/Mohan Bhagwat

Hindus without Defense/Mohan

Bhagwat

Open Challenge to Devdutt Pattanaik

From Naxalite to Dharma / Dr. Rajiv

Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Niti Aayog

Hindu Music Compromised: Presented

by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and IGNCA

Jallianwala Bagh: British Regret

Western Influence on Hinduism Today

Interview with Sree Iyer, PGurus

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R. Jagannathan (Swarajya)

conversation with Rajiv Malhotra

Hinduism in Latin America

Hindus In Ghana: The Struggle for

Identity

Hindus & Minority Rights

Itihasa is not Mythology

ISKCON Bangalore Tour

Vedic Contributions to American

Grand Narrative

Hindu Intervention at Stanford

Decolonizing Delhi University

State of Hindu Media

Current Projects

In the regional language front we are

continuing with our efforts to provide

Hindi and other regional language subtitles

of both current as well as older videos

released by Infinity Foundation.

Full video transcripts in different Indian

languages are now available for easy

reference. Rajiv Malhotra’s academic

writings are being translated into various

Indian languages. All these are being made

available in Rajivmalhotraregional.com

website.

Projects supported by your donations

1. Stipends for top scholars

2. Book printing

3. Research Assistants for new books

4. Conferences with high impact

5. Video production for the mainstream

6. Translations/transcriptions of our

articles & videos into Indian languages

7. Hindi dubbing of videos

8. General fund for institutional

expenses.

To donate, please visit:

https://infinityfoundation.com/donate/

You may contact us in any one of the

following ways:

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/infinitymessage

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/infinityfound

ationofficial/

Egroup:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!foru

m/infinityfoundationsatsang

Email:

Infinity.Foundation.India@gmail.com

Instagram: @InfinityFoundation.Official

You will be among the first to know about

new uploads, the completion of new

regional language subtitles and stay

connected with all the other important

work that Infinity Foundation is doing!

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Swadeshi Indology Conference - 5

“Karnāṭaka Śāstrīya Saṅgīta: Its Past,

Present and Future”

The fifth Swadeshi Indology Conference

titled “Karnāṭaka Śāstrīya Saṅgīta: Its Past,

Present and Future” was organized by

Infinity Foundation India in collaboration

with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bengaluru

and Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts

- Regional Centre, Bengaluru. The day-long

conference was held at Bharatiya Vidya

Bhavan, Bengaluru on Saturday, 30th

March 2019. Its objective was to reaffirm

the Sanātana Dhārmic roots of the Karnatic

music heritage and the centrality of bhakti

therein, in the wake of the various

disruptive narratives afoot aiming to delink

its sacred aspect, and projecting it not only

as a mere secular art but also delineating

its sacredness as the very tool of

oppression.

An auspicious beginning to the conference

was made by the Nāgasvara recital of

Viduṣī Prabhavati and Vidvān Palanivel.

The conference was inaugurated with the

lighting of the lamp by Paramapūjya Śrī

Yadugiri Yatirāja Jīyar Swāmiji, Padma

Bhushan awardee Dr. R. Nagaswamy, Śrī

Mohandas Pai and Dr. Sumathi Krishnan.

Śrī Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal

Global Education and a philanthropist,

gave a rousing address regarding cultural

appropriation and the multiple dimensions

of attacks on our civilization. Dr. Sumathi

Krishnan, Secretary of the Madras Music

Academy, set the tone of the academic

event by giving a very balanced view on

tradition in the context of our music and

brought in issues in a subtle manner.

Finally, pūjya Swāmiji put into perspective

the onslaughts that are happening on

Sanātana Dharma as well as the divine art

of Karnatic music, with particular reference

to the turn they have taken in the past few

decades. His āśīrvacana boded well for this

undertaking by a few scholars to stand up

to the distortions that are happening in the

name of artistic freedom.

A short but very focused and hard-hitting

keynote address was delivered by Śrī Rajiv

Malhotra via a video recording, where he

threw light upon how the Bhakti

performing arts of our culture are being

systematically desacralized and hijacked by

alien-colonial forces and the role of our

own scholars/artists in aiding the same. A

scholarly plenary session by Dr. R

Nagaswamy (renowned historian,

archaeologist and epigraphist) traced the

origins of Karṇāṭaka Saṅgīta.

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The academic sessions had a total of 8

paper presentations which covered the

various aspects of the classical musical

form. The first session saw three papers

being presented under the expert chairing

of Dr. T S Sathyavathi, the reputed

musician and musicologist. The first paper

by senior scholar Dr. Korada

Subrahmanyam on the philosophy

underlying Śrī Tyāgarāja’s kṛti-s brought

out the aspects of bhakti and deep

spirituality therein, while also offering

rebuttals to the allegations of casteism and

oppression made regarding the celebrated

vāggeyakāra. The paper by Viduṣī Gayathri

Girish focused on the essential philosophy

in Muttusvāmi Dīkṣita’s kṛti-s, presenting

their inherent sanātana dhārmic character

and also elucidated the divine personality

of the composer. The final paper

presentation of the session by Viduṣī

Vrinda Acharya was effective in conveying

the non-translatable nature of several key

concepts related to our music. She

compared them with the popular

equivalents used and showed their

inadequacy, making a strong case for

retaining the original terms. The session

concluded with a summing up by the chair,

Dr. T S Sathyavathi who gave a touching

analogy of a body sans life, when our

classical music is divested of its sanātana

dhārmic nature.

Under the able chairing by Śrī N S

Krishnamurthy, Former Director of AIR and

reputed scholar, the second academic

session saw Dr. Radha Bhaskar, the

musician, musicologist and organizer of

repute, discussing the topic of how far is

too far in experimentation. She

methodically dealt with the various levels

in experimentation, discussed what

constitutes a legitimate experiment that is

in tune with the core values of our music,

and what would be really crossing the

rubicon. The next presentation by Śrī

Aravind Brahmakal, of Ranjani Fine Arts,

provided a patron’s point of view,

suggesting the various ways in which a

Karnatic musician can be encouraged to

undertake music as a full-time profession,

so as to retain it in its purest form without

being allured to distort the same. The

session concluded with the Śrī N S

Krishnamurthy’s perceptive remarks on

the papers presented.

An interesting but focused plenary

discussion took place under the able

moderation of Dr. Radha Bhaskar, with Dr.

T S Sathyavathi, Śrī N S Krishnamurthy,

Vidvān Melkāveri Balaji and Śrī

Lalitharam. The questions such as the

status of Nāgasvara artists, the hard but

dhārmic decisions to be taken by

professional artistes, and the focus of

today’s music were discussed, which were

very well received by the audience.

The final academic session took on the

momentous question of appropriation of

the Karnatic music heritage and the

allegations on the heritage done by the

musician Vidvān T M Krishna. Prof. K S

Kannan, the Academic Director of

Swadeshi Indology, chaired the session. Śrī

Jataayu, the famous blogger on Hindu

culture and Tamil literature, gave an in-

depth view on the Christian attempts of

appropriation of Karnāṭaka Saṅgīta,

dwelling on the works of Vedanāyagam

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Śāstriyār and Abraham Paṇḍitar in detail.

The second presentation by Dr. V B Arathi

dealt with a fitting refutation to the

allegation of the Karnatic music field being

a ‘Bastion of Brahminical Patriarchy’, which

she handled by raising some fundamental

questions about the two parts of the topic.

The final paper by Dr. V Ramanathan of IIT-

BHU was a fairly detailed critique of Śrī T M

Krishna’s book ‘A Southern Music – The

Karnatic Story’, questioning the flawed

methodology followed and the drastic

conclusions that are drawn. The final

session concluded with the Prof. K S

Kannan’s remarks on the three papers.

Audience involvement and participation in

the form of Q&A made all sessions lively

and interactive.

The valedictory session was a brief one,

with Śrī V Nagaraj, Secretary of the Mythic

Society (which is partnering with IFI to

bring out the conference proceedings) and

Dr. Deepti Navaratna, Director of IGNCA -

Regional Centre, Bengaluru, delivering

short addresses summing-up the day’s

proceedings. This was followed by the Vote

of Thanks delivered by Prof. Kannan,

concluding the day’s events.

15

ANNUAL - 2019

Swadeshi Indology Conference 6

Saraswati: A Paradigm Shift in Indology

The sixth Swadeshi Indology conference

titled Saraswati: A Paradigm Shift in

Indology, in association with the Bharat

Patriot Foundation, was conducted at

Delhi University on the 1 and 2 August

2019 and brought into highlight the key

breakthroughs in research on the River

Saraswati Civilization. Sri Rajiv Malhotra

chaired the inaugural session of the

conference and outlined the importance of

the Aryan Invasion Debate, its historicity

and continued consequences to the

present times.

Major General Dr. G.D. Bakshi traced the

structure and objectives of the seminar

and Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, the Union

Minister for Culture delivered the

Inaugural Address. Padma Bhushan B.B.

Lal spoke in his keynote address of the

major milestones that have marked

research into the Saraswati Civilization.

Dr. Vasanth Shinde in his talk presented

the key points of his team’s archaeological

research at the burial sites of Rakhigarhi.

Dr. Shinde outlined that DNA samples had

been collected from the sites utmost care

and were being subject to genome

sequencing, which would have crucial

consequences for the identity of the

Harappans. He highlighted that the nature

of artefacts collected point to the

Harappan Civilization being Vedic in

nature. The second session of the

conference focused on Satellite Imagery

and Geological Evidence.

Dr. B.K Bhadra from ISRO presented

detailed multi resolution satellite studies

of the river Saraswati in northern Haryana.

He spoke of the specifics of the remote

sensing techniques used to study the paleo

channels of the river and related results

and analysis. Dr. A.R Chaudhury in his

paper Monotonic Weakening of the

Monsoons: Cause of Desiccation of

Sarasvati? presented research into the

river system from tectonic and seismic

perspectives including studies of

lamination, analysis of the grains deposited

by the river along the paleo belt.

The third session of the conference had

Padma Shri R.S. Bisht present an overview

of the archaeological work done on the

subject and points of convergence

between Harappans and Rig Veda. Dr.

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Sanjay Manjul presented his recent

findings on the horse chariot unearthed

during excavations as well as discovery of

the oldest helmet in the world. The fourth

session of the conference, on DNA

Mapping, focused on results from DNA

studies to address questions related to the

identities of the people of Sarasvati

Civilization.

Dr. Gyaneshwar Chaube presented his

paper titled The Question of Aryan

Migration through the lens of Y-

Chromosomal Haplogroup R1a. Dr.

Chaubey’s conclusions pointed to the

result that maternal gene-pool of Indians,

including speakers of Indo-European and

Dravidian languages, is nearly uniform. Dr.

Swarkar Sharma presented his paper on

Indian Origin of Caste System and existence

of Ancient Pre-Historic Content that led to

a deeper understanding of genetic origins

of Indian civilization.

The fifth session of the conference focused

on Linguistic and Scriptural Evidence. Dr.

Kalyanaraman and Dr. Rammohan

presented their paper on The Indus Script:

Linguistic and Scriptural Evidence about

Saraswati in the Vedas. Both the speakers

highlighted the role of the Sarasvati

civilization in the Tin-Bronze metal

revolution of the 4th millennium BCE.

Manogna Sastry and Megh

Kalyanasundaram presented two papers -

Sarasvati in the Mahabharata: A study and

Aryan problem from the perspective of

textual evidence and linguistics.

In their first paper, the authors’ presented

their database of 222 verses of Sarasvatī

from the BORI critical edition of the

Mahābhārata and their results to explore

the possibility of a terminus ante quem for

the Mahabharata. In their second

presentation, the authors highlighted the

important Indic assets which are at stake

in the issue i.e. the consequence that the

earliest forms of Vedic culture and Sanskrit

are not indigenous to India. Their paper

examined issues with linguistics being the

primary domain of study in the topic,

specific problems in historical Indo-

European linguistics while conducting a

through a study of the terms ārya and

drāvida in a range of Indic texts.

The valedictory session had Major

General Dr. Bakshi brainstorm the way

forward to take the findings presented

over the course of the two days to public

knowledge. He delivered the vote of

thanks, bringing to conclusion the sixth

Swadeshi Indology conference.